


Love Is In The Air And It Smells Like Coffee

by ineffablesaltflower



Category: The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Everything is soft, Galadriel knows whats going on, Haldir and Galadriel own a coffee shop, Haldir has a headache, Legolas teases Gimli, M/M, Modern AU, Nobody Dies, Sam is the cute barista, brief mention of Boromir, but they are still elves and dwarves and hobbits, coffee shop AU, its called Café Lórien, the Hobbits are all baristas except Frodo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26649538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineffablesaltflower/pseuds/ineffablesaltflower
Summary: Haldir and Galadriel own the Café Lórien. All Haldir begs for is a quiet, normal day. Safe to say, normal days are nothing that is known to the Hobbit baristas. Perhaps the stranger that seemed to only come around for WiFi has other ideas as well. Legolas and Gimli fight their own little war right in his Café and Haldir is sure to lose his mind at some point.this story is so full of fluff, you might catch diabetes.
Relationships: Aragorn | Estel & Haldir of Lothlórien, Aragorn | Estel/Haldir of Lothlórien, Frodo Baggins & Sam Gamgee, Frodo Baggins/Sam Gamgee, Gimli (Son of Glóin) & Legolas Greenleaf, Gimli (Son of Glóin)/Legolas Greenleaf
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	Love Is In The Air And It Smells Like Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!
> 
> my second work in this fandom and I'm quite proud of it.
> 
> I'm taking prompts now! Send them to my twitter: @HaldirsLoth
> 
> This was a prompt of @Silver_Sarcasm on twitter:
> 
> you're writing a coffee shop AU with LOTR characters. Who is:  
> The cute barista, the mean manager, the cool manager, the annoying colleague, the one who comes in daily to buy black coffee, the one whose order takes five minutes to spell out bc of all the extras, the one who only comes for the wifi.. etc?  
> 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Because tbh I loved writing this more than I probably should.  
> xoxo,  
> flower

> _Not all who wander are lost - some are just looking for coffee._

A normal day. Haldir begged for only one normal morning in his Café. A normal morning without screaming, without having a dwarf trampling through the door furiously. Without having the younger, blonde elf already waiting for said costumer, only to step right in front of the counter, greeting them with the most innocent smile.

Only one normal day.

"No! No, don't you fucking dare!", Gimlis rough voice nearly shook the cupcakes from the counter, earning him a scolding look from the owner. But Gimli had no eyes nor ears for the grumpy elf, his whole attention was fixed on the blonde in front of him.

"You literally waited for me to arrive! I was too late and you waited for me, just so you can —" 

Yes, Gimli was late and yes, Gimli was angry because now he had to wait even longer. Legolas drank every day the same, every fucking day and yet the sweet, little Hobbit in front of him asked Legolas what he wanted.

Perhaps Pippin simply couldn't remember, but Gimli rather guessed that he was having bets with his cousin about when the dwarf would probably explode and just punch the blonde right there on the spot.

Legolas turned lazily to him, an innocent grin spreading over his face.

"Oh? Did I?", he asked and tilted his head. Of course he did. He waited every day, just so he could watch the stranger getting mad because Legolas' order was taking so long.

And mad Gimli was. A lot. But he also had one other problem: Legolas was incredibly cute and pretty. Therefore he simply could not shove him away, no, of course he waited every time for Legolas to finish, eyes rolling so far, they might disappear into his head one day with no return.

"You're unbelievable, elf.", he grumbled and crossed his arms. He could remember the elfs order almost in his sleep. Surely he dreamed about him, but those were certainly only nightmares.

"Am I?", he asked again before turning back to the Hobbit with his sweetest smile. It must be the sweetest smile, because it softened Gimli somewhere deep inside.

"Hi. I'm taking one venti vanilla latte."

Of course, one vanilla latte, what else would the laddie in front of him drink?

Legolas grin even widened, tugging a strand of hair behind his pointy ear. (Which Gimli thought was kinda ridiculous. For what did elves need such pointy ears?)

"But with soy milk, one shot of vanilla espresso — no, sorry, make it three extra shots and it would be absolutely fantastic if you had some caramel syrup.", Legolas ordered, full well knowing that the dwarf either plotted his death or to take him on a date.

To be fair, Legolas didn't know yet which he would prefer. To fight against him or to go on said yet unproposed date.

"Coming immediately.", Pippin replied cheerily. "your name?"

Gimli let out his breath audibly. Seriously? As if he didn't remember the blondes name.

But Pippin gave him just another cheery smile while Merry started to prepare the order, he nearly couldn't take it.

"Legolas.", he replied and gave the dwarf another smile. Just before he was stepping away, he stopped in his movements.

"Oh, and one piece of your cheese cake today. I'm in no hurry."

"Some people actually have to work here, laddie.", Gimli grumbled from behind and this time he shoved Legolas a little further. "Times up."

"I do have to work as well.", Legolas let him know with almost the same cheery voice the Hobbits could produce if they wanted to.

Gimli could finally, finally order his straight, black coffee. He was literally done within almost a second.

He hadn't paid any attention to the elf anymore, still grumbling about how he was going to be late for work. It wasn't like he didn't have his own business and literally nobody waited for him.

Yet — the elf made his life so much more complicated. Sure, he could change the coffee shop, but he came to like his mornings in here, drinking his coffee in peace once he got it.

He only looked up when he could hear a surprised shriek, then some cursing, because apparently the coffee was quite hot, and a very embarrassed Hobbit between the door and Legolas.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't – I didn't notice you and —", Frodo started apologizing, while Legolas stared at the mess on his clothes and hands and especially on the ground with his lost coffee.

"It's fine, no worries.", Legolas replied with a sigh, wiping his hands on his already dirty clothes. They were lost anyway. Luckily not too much ended on his hands to leave a burn or anything.

"I didn't mean to.", Frodo reassured with wide eyes.

Legolas waved it off with a smile. "It's fine. I didn't look either."

No, in fact he had been too busy watching Gimli and ran straight into the much smaller Hobbit.

"Mr. Frodo!", Sam called from behind the corner, hair falling into his eyes when he leaned so far over the counter, Merry was worried he might fall over it.

Gimli secretly shoved some money over the counter, giving Merry the same order for Legolas once again.

Sam immediately hurried around, bringing a few towels to clean the floor, and for Legolas' clothes.

Legolas sat down in a corner to dry and perhaps get his clothes a little cleaner, noticing the coffee cup landing next to him on the table from the corner of his eyes.

"There ya go, laddie. We don't want you to fall asleep during whatever you're doing the whole day.", Gimli replied, lingering for a moment.

Legolas' face immediately brightened up like a christmas tree when he looked up.

Gimli nearly smiled back, when he noticed the elf looking past him, waving Aragorn, a friend of his.

Aragorn was a special costumer Haldir couldn't stand either. The only thing this man ordered was one coffee or a cake when they were lucky, but he stayed for hours, just sitting in the corner with his laptop and his phone and using their free WiFi.

"You're unbelievable, elf.", Gimli replied again, but was rewarded with a bright smile as well.

"I know.", Legolas answered, finally giving up to clean his clothes. "Thank you."

His grin turned sheepishly, hiding behind the coffee cup as he took the first sip. Impressing. The dwarf got his order right.

"Do you want to sit down for a moment or are you too busy?"

"... You know what. I'm already late for work anyway, it doesn't matter anymore.", Gimli decided and flopped down onto the chair next to him.

The rest already didn't pay them any attention anymore, except for the second owner, Galadriel who always somehow seemed to be everywhere, smiled softly and went to catch the dirty towel, long forgotten and abandoned on the table.

"He's here again.", Haldir complained to her a few moments later when she came past him. "He ordered an espresso and now he sits there. I tell you, he's only here and using up our WiFi."

She laughed quietly, turning her head to see for herself.

"Why don't you ask him why he's here every day? The whole day without ordering anything?"

"Because he's clearly only here for the WiFi."

"No, thats Boromir.", informed him Merry as he walked past them to grab some more cakes. "He only orders a glass of water and I tell you, he can sit there for hours and just drink nothing else. He never eats either. Aragorn actually works, I don't know what but it seems to be important."

With that the Hobbit disappeared from Haldirs sight again, leaving him even more unsatisfied. They had two costumers wasting up their WiFi? He only had ever noticed Aragorn, perhaps Boromir, whoever that was, came in later after Haldir was gone already. Most of the times he only came in to check onto them all in the mornings and late afternoon.

"So, why don't you ask him why he's always here?", Galadriel suggested once again, with one of her secretive smiles. "He asked for you yesterday, when you weren't here."

With those words she left him, moving to go to her office to take care of the paperwork.

Haldir stared at the stranger, who apparently asked for him in his absence, took Aragorns order from Pippins hand and went towards the table.

Pippin quickly slapped Merrys arm to get his attention, managing to throw another order flying from the counter. Luckily not onto Frodos shirt, which would probably have been a respective payback, if Legolas would have noticed at all. Legolas was too busy staring at a grumpy dwarf all too dreamingly.

"Pippin.", Sam complained and gestured to the coffee. "That was Mr. Frodos." With a soft sigh he went to make him the same again.

"But he's doing it! Look, look. He's actually walking up to Aragorn! And oh, oh, Sam! Sam, Legolas and Gimli are just about to kiss!", Pippins voice had gradually became louder, earning him an embarrassed look of said elf and dwarf, who quickly brought some distance between them.

"Great.", Merry groaned quietly, moving his elbow into the others side. "Now we were about to witness the moment of the year and you ruined it. I almost won."

Though Gimli believed they had a bet according to his coping mechanism of waiting, they actually had bets about when they finally made out. Every week a new one. Merry hadn't given them another week anymore, while Pippin believed it would take them the rest of the month.

Sam mostly kept out of this whole mess, drawing a small smiley face and a flower onto the cup for Frodo.

"Here.", he said with a smile and Frodo was sure the sun suddenly rose in the middle of the café. Secretly he had a crush on him for, ah, what felt ages, but he never really dared to ask. And Sam was not one to push and didn't ask either. Not yet. He actually had a plan and since everybody seemed to come around today with their feelings, he decided to finally get through with it as well.

At some point. He knew Frodo was still here for a few hours, probably watching him. He didn't know. He was too busy trying to not being caught of staring at the black-haired hobbit from time to time.

"Do you think Aragorn will ask him for his number?" "Do you think he accepts?"

Haldir could literally hear them and once again he wondered why he got himself such chatty baristas.

The cousins noticed they had been caught, lowering their voice again.

"I'm betting a cupcake and a piece of cake that he won't ask."

"I'm betting two cupcakes that if Aragorn asks, he will refuse.", Merry held against and if the counter would be low enough, they'd probably crawl over it to get a better view.

Frodo had taken his cup to his usual table, staring at the little flower and the smiley face. Did they mean anything? Was the extremely cute barista trying to tell him something with that? The Hobbit stared at the cup, as if maybe when he stared enough, it was going to tell him secrets.

In the meantime Haldir had finally reached Aragorns table, though he had taken the long way around another table until he felt stupid for doing so. There had been no reason to walk that weirdly around and he was sure that he could feel at least four hobbit eyes following every step he went.

He cleared his throat once he stopped next to the quite busy costumer, earning himself a kind smile when Haldir put down the cup in front of him.

"Here.", he replied and blinked for a moment, before smiling carefully back. A smile didn't hurt, did it?

But before Aragorn had the chance to say anything, Haldir turned already around, walked a few steps before shaking his head about himself. How old was he? Right. So, just — ask him, like Galadriel said. Easy. Super easy. Even the dwarf and Legolas had managed, so he should manage that simple question.

So Haldir turned around to look at the stranger, who was still watching him, giving him a half hearted smile when he was caught staring.

"You asked for me yesterday?", Haldir asked, sounding hopefully all casual and business instead of — well, whatever he was feeling.

Now it was time for Aragorn to be speechless. He didn't rehearse for this moment. What was he supposed to say? 'sorry, I don't know what to say, I never thought I'd get this far?'

Yesterday he had been feeling quite bold, asking Sam about the owner, who always came in and left at the same time. Just not yesterday, when he had felt confident enough to ask for Haldir. That much he knew at least. His name.

But right now his mind was blank and he stared at the blonde.

"Yes. Uhm. I did.", he replied, scolding himself for such intelligent words. He was supposed to say something catching, something to win the other over.

"May I ask why?", Haldir asked, seemingly unbothered and if he wouldn't own such excellent body composure, he'd probably start shaking.

From behind Haldir, the Hobbits caught Aragorns struggle and started to gesture to various coffee cups and then to the freshly baked cake Sam had prepared earlier, looking expatantly at him. He frowned, trying to catch what they were saying.

Merry gestured to Legolas and Gimli, who were completely locked into their own world, coffee gotten cold and forgotten on the table. Pippin raised an empty cup and Sam held up a plate of cake.

Slowly the Hobbits came to the conclusion, that either Aragorn was blind or he gave away his last living braincell in front of the door. How more obvious should they get going?

Just when Merry and Pippin seemed to want to take matters into his own hands, Aragorn snapped out of his stare, head snapping around to look at the confused owner.

"Would you like to get some coffee with me?", Aragorn blurted out and Haldir felt himself nodding before he could think about it.

"Right. Right. I think — No, wait. Sit down, I'll get you a cup.", he stumbled over his own words and motioning for Haldir to sit down. Which the other surprisingly did without asking any other questions.

When Aragorn went to the counter to get the coffee and cake for Haldir and a piece of cake for himself as well, the elf stared out of the window with pinkish cheeks. At this point Haldir begged that nobody would see. He was sure that he'd drop dead when someone would notice.

Safe to say that Aragorn did and was absolutely delighted about it, Haldir quickly hiding behind the cup of coffee. Perhaps he'd need some chamomile tea instead of coffee to calm his nerves.

Hair was falling in his face and Haldir didn't brush it back, relieved that his burning cheeks were at least hidden now.

Unfortunately Aragorn took it as an invitation to tug the blonde hair back, their gazes meeting and Haldir was rewarded with a soft smile. He couldn't help but immediately smile back.

Perhaps this all wasn't so bad and he could get the hang of it eventually.

Later Haldir didn't even care anymore when Boromir came in, of course once more solely for the reason of the WiFi. Originally he had planned to at least talk to him about it. But he was so busy listenting to one of Aragorns story, he didn't even notice the Hobbits letting Boromir in, asking him all kinds of questions.

It was rather obvious that the Hobbits allowed him to come in, since he knew the best stories. And in return they let him sit there with his water for the rest of the day, borrowing their WiFi.

So even if Haldir would want to change that, it surely didn't happen today. For now he was surprisingly less grumpy, features softening from time to time when he was laughing about one of Aragorns jokes. Not even costumers stealing his free internet could destroy his mood.

Sam watched them with a gentle smile, secretly bracing himself for his plan. Now that even Aragorn and Haldir had managed to get a bit closer, he needed to take this chance. Perhaps today fate was generous and allowed him to take a step as well.

Frodos coffee was almost empty, the first round he always drank rather fast. He was just pulling a few scripts out of his bag, Sam still found it impressing that the other one came around just to write his book here in the Café. He imagined it to be rather disturbing by the chatter of other people.

Frodo wasn't sure the cute barista would pick up one day on why he actually came here every day. Surely not to write his book. There were more silent places to write it and he'd probably finish it faster if he would actually go there.

But none of the other places had Sam there, so what was the reason anyway to go there?

Frodo had taken a while to see for himself why he was coming here every time, but when he did, he realized now he only had to somehow show Sam the reason as well.

Unfortunately it didn't go quite well, since his only 'showing' was secretly staring whenever the barista was busy. That was not how it worked, even Frodo knew that.

But Sam wouldn't be Sam if he wasn't attentive enough and with time even understood the not so subtle staring. He was just too kind to show that he caught Frodo staring.

Sam packed a piece of his cake on a plate and hummed quietly to himself along the song playing on the radio.

He had no idea where he finally worked up the courage for, but he took a cup, drew a small flower, a coffee cup, two sticky figured where the one had curly black hair and a question mark behind it.

Sam was quite proud of his plan. This way Frodo didn't have to directly answer if he didn't want to. His smile widened and he hid his little drawings from the curious eyes of Merry and Pippin.

Fortunately the younger Hobbits were busy with spreading out their bets and finding out who exactly was the winner. Though Legolas and Gimli still hadn't made out, which still led to no winner.

But the bets about Aragorn and Haldir were definitely closed and lost big time, even though it wasn't exactly what they had been betting for. Aragorn didn't ask for Haldirs number, not yet at least.

In fact, Haldir took matters onto his own hands, writing it down onto the napkin for Aragorn without having being asked.

So therefore the other Hobbits were quite busy, which meant Sam could sneak towards Frodos table with anyone noticing.

"Here, Mr. Frodo.", he said cheerily and put down the plate and coffee, a caramel cappuccino with a little extra shot of caramel. Frodos favorite.

"Sam, how many times do I have to tell you that you can just call me Frodo? And only that?", Frodo asked with a shy smile.

"At least one more time, Mr. Frodo.", Sam replied kindly and returned it with a soft smile, which made Frodo weak on his knees. Fortunately he already sat down.

Sam was about to turn around before Frodo could catch sight of his little ridiculous drawing. Because ridiculous he thought it was now. Perhaps his plan wasn't as good as he thought it had been.

"Sam.", Frodo stopped the barista from returning to the counter and stared at said little drawing. It was..cute. Yes, he thought it was very cute. Perhaps he could use it one day for one of his books.

"When does your shift end today?", he found himself asking and finally managed to tear his gaze away and turn his head to look at Sam.

"At four.", he replied and gestured with his hands. "Perhaps I could leave a bit earlier."

"At four. No, thats fine. I think I will have finished the chapter by then.", Frodo smiled and shook his head. "You don't have to leave earlier for me. Four is absolutely fine. Perhaps we could — grab some dinner later then."

"I would very much like that, Mr. Frodo. I will make sure to finish on time.", Sam replied before a rather troubling noise from the Hobbit cousins was coming over. "I should leave now, Mr. Frodo, before there's no Café left and we could immediately leave."

A grin spread over his face, much more confident than before, now that things were going on.

"Oh, and Sam — ", Frodo called after him, a small grin painted across his features as well.

"Yes, I know.", Sam replied, walking backwards for a moment with a smile, Frodo was sure was trying to compete with the sun. "I know, it's Frodo. And only Frodo, Mr. Frodo."

This made the black haired Hobbit laugh, shaking his head as he was turning back to his scripts. Yes. Yes, today was a good day to finish this story.

So everybody kind of won something, except for Pippin. Who lost the bet about Legolas and Gimli. They caught the elf and the dwarf snogging next to the Café once it had closed.

Merry had started his triumph dance right there, until Gimli glared at them enough to make them leave.

Haldir and Aragorn weren't that fast. It took them another two months until they ended where Legolas and Gimli had once stood. And it earned Aragorn another pair of pinkish cheeks and even some reddened elf ear tips when he kissed Haldir right there.

Sam and Frodo decided to share their first kiss during a picnic somewhere in the fields. Sam had won his heart over within a few weeks, with lots of coffee, self made cake and cupcakes.

Perhaps, Frodo thought when he laid there in the middle of some sunflowers, that maybe he should start writing stories about their lives.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I did steal that one quote from pirates of the carribean. Yes, I know it's kinda cheesy, but I love it. You know which one.


End file.
